Part 10 (1/2)

Nutrient and DNA deficiency, Mother hummed. I need food.

”But you can move everywhere, Mother. Why are you not finding food?”

Guidance systems malfunction. Food sources in the current area are depleted.

”Can I help, Mother?”

The way ahead bent slightly to the right. Mother was running in a circle.

There is an obstruction in my mainframe. Please remove the obstruction.

Behind Rak, something clanged. The tube slithered out of her nostril and she could see the room around her again. She turned her head. Behind the hammock a hatch had opened in the ceiling, the lid hanging down, rungs lining the inside. The hammock let Rak go with a sucking noise and she climbed up the rungs.

Inside, gently lit in red, was Mother's brain: a small s.p.a.ce surrounded by cables winding into flesh. A slow pulse beat through the walls. Half sitting against the wall was the emaciated body of a male. Its head and right shoulder were resting on a tangle of delicate tubes, bloated and stiff where they ran in under the dead male's body, thin and atrophied on the other. Rak pulled at an arm. Mother had started to absorb the corpse; it was partly fused to the wall. She tugged harder, and the upper body finally tore away and fell sideways. There was a rus.h.i.+ng sound as pressure in the tubes evened out. The body was no longer in the way of any wires or tubes that Rak could see. She left it on the floor and climbed back down the hatch. Back in the hammock, the tube snuck into her nostril, and Mother's voice was in her head again.

Thank you, said Mother. Obstruction has been removed. Guidance system recalibrating.

”It was Ziz, I think,” said Rak. ”He was dead.”

Yes. He was performing maintenance when he expired.

”Aren't there any more pilots?”

You can be my pilot.

”But I'm female,” Rak said.

That is all right. Your brain gives me sufficient processing power for calculating a new itinerary.

”What?”

You don't have to do anything. Just sit here with me.

Rak watched as Mother changed course, climbing the wall of the canyon and up onto a soft yellow expanse: gra.s.sland, whispered. The sky sat heavy and blue over the gra.s.s. Mother slowed down, her mouthpieces scooping up plants from the ground.

Angular silhouettes stood against the horizon.

”What is that?” said Rak.

Cities, Mother replied. Your ancestors used to live there. But then the cities died, and they came to me. We entered an agreement. You would keep me company, and in exchange I would protect you until the world was a better place.

”Where are we going?”

Looking for a mate. I need fresh genetic material. My system is not completely self-sufficient.

”Oh.” Rak's mouth fell open. ”Are there... more of you?”

Of sorts. There are none like me, but I have cousins that roam the steppes. A sigh. None of them are good company. Not like my children.

Mother trundled over the gra.s.sland, eating and eating. Rak panicked the first time the sun disappeared, until Mother wrapped the hammock tight around her and told her to look up. Rak quieted at the sight of the glowing band laid across the sky. Other suns, Mother said, but Rak could not grasp it. She settled for thinking of it like lights in the ceiling of a great room.

They pa.s.sed more of the cities: jagged spires and broken domes, bright surfaces criss-crossed with cracks and curling green. Occasionally flocks of other living creatures ran across the gra.s.s. Mother would name them all. Each time a new animal appeared Rak asked if that was her mate. The answer was always no.

”Are you feeling better?” Rak said eventually.

No. A sighing sound. I am sorry. My system is degraded past the point of repair.

”What does that mean?”

Goodbye, my daughter. Please use the exit with green lights.

Something shot up Rak's nostril through the tube. A sting of pain blossomed inside her forehead, and she tore the tube out. A thin stream of blood trailed from her nose. She wiped at it with her arm. A shudder shook the hammock. The luminescence in the walls faded. It was suddenly very quiet.

”Mother?” Rak said into the gloom. Outside, something was different. She peered out through one of the eyes. The world wasn't moving.

”Mother!” Rak put the tube in her nose again, but it fell out and lay limp in her lap. She slid out of the hammock, standing up on stiff legs. The hatch to Mother's brain was still open. Rak pulled herself up into the little s.p.a.ce. It was pitch dark and still. No pulse moved through the walls.

Rak left Mother's head and started down the long corridors, down toward the Nursery and the Belly. She scooped some mucus from the wall to eat, but it tasted rank. It was getting darker. Only the growths around the round plate between the Head and the rest of the body were still glowing brightly. They had changed to green.

In the Nursery, Papa was lying on his cot, chest rising and falling faintly.

”There you are,” he said when Rak approached. ”You were gone for so long.”

”What happened?” said Rak.

Papa shook his head. ”Nothing happened. Nothing at all.”

”Mother isn't moving,” said Rak. ”I found Her head, and She talked to me, and I helped Her find her way to food, but she says she can't be repaired, and now she's not moving. I don't know what to do.”

Papa closed his eyes. ”Our Mother is dead,” he whispered. ”And we will go with Her.”

He turned away, spreading his arms against the wall, hugging the tangle of cabling and flesh. Rak left him there.

In the Belly, the air was thick and rancid. The peristaltic engine was still. Rak's feet slapping against the floor made a very loud noise. Around the chamber, workers were lying along the walls, half-melted into Mother's flesh. The Leg accesses along the walls were all open; here and there an arm or a head poked out. Hap lay close to the entrance, resting on her side. Her body was gaunt, her ribs fully visible through the skin. She had begun sinking into the floor; Rak could still see part of her face. Her eyes were half-closed, as if she were just very tired.

Rak backed out into the corridor, turning back toward the Head. The sphincters were all relaxing, sending the foul air from the Belly toward her, forcing her to crawl forward. The last of the luminescence faded. She crawled in darkness until she saw a green s.h.i.+mmer up ahead. The round plate was still there. It swung aside at her touch.

The air coming in was cold and sharp, painful on the skin, but fresh. Rak breathed in deep. The hot air from Mother's insides streamed out above her in a cloud. The sun hung low on the horizon, its light far more blinding than Mother's eyes had seen it. One hand in front of her eyes, Rak swung her legs out over the rim of the opening and cried out in surprise when her feet landed on gra.s.s. The myriad blades p.r.i.c.kled the soles of her feet. She sat there, gripping at the gra.s.s with her toes, eyes squeezed shut. When the light was less painful, she opened her eyes a little and stood up.

The aperture opened out between two of Mother's jointed legs. They rested on the gra.s.s, each leg thicker around than Rak could reach with her arms. Beyond them, she could glimpse more legs to either side. She looked up. Behind her, the wall of Mother's body rose up, more than twice Rak's own height. Beyond the top there was sky, a blue nothing, not flat like seen through Mother's eyes but deep and endless. In front of her, the gra.s.sland, stretching on and on. Rak held on to the ma.s.sive leg next to her. Her stomach clenched, and she bent over and spat bile. There was a hot lump in her chest that wouldn't go away. She spat again and kneeled on the gra.s.s.

”Mother,” she whispered in the thin air. She leaned against the leg. It was cold and smooth. ”Mother, please.” She crawled in under Mother's legs, curling up against Her body, breathing in Her familiar musk. A sweet hint of rot lurked below. The knot in Rak's chest forced itself up through her throat in a howl.